PRACTICE: Write down one thing that you would like someone to know about how you handle adversity.
I love cheese -all kinds but having done a little research and watched a couple of documentaries around the production of cheese, sometimes makes me feel a bit unsettled when I eat it. I have periods when I don’t tolerate it very well, but I always come back to it. So why am I writing about cheese. It is a fascinating source of food, good to eat and kind of gross all at the same time. There are more than one thousand eight hundred varieties categorized by texture, flavor, age and various other characteristics. Cheese is produced all over the world. It is made from the milk of cows and other mammals, salt and live bacteria. So, let’s talk about Swiss cheese.
There are more than 450 types of Swiss cheese alone. The specific bacteria used to make Swiss cheese at some point in the process expands and releases carbon dioxide which creates the holes or eyes. The size of the hole/eyes is determined by length of time the cheese is allowed to age. Baby Swiss has small eyes and a milder flavor than older varieties. Not all Swiss cheese have eyes – eyeless Swiss cheese is “blind.” Blind Swiss cheese is probably a result of modern sanitation that has eliminated some of the debris in milk resulting in reduced hole size. Each block of Swiss cheese is unique.
Swiss Cheese production reminds me that none of us arrive at adulthood as blind Swiss cheese. We all have holes – some more than others. Some of us arrive as baby swiss. Some of us arrive with large distinct holes caused by the amount of stuff we have experienced (bacteria) and the residual effect (gas).
Here’s the beauty of the holes, they are uniquely yours - remembering the bacteria and resulting gas that produced those holes/eyes, spills through the holes and helps you to believe, to trust yourself and God in the future. Your memory produces gratitude (bacteria) that can be added to milk and salt of life. I like to think that each time I am made into a block of Swiss cheese, I become more flavorful to the world around me.
PONDER THIS THOUGHT---If someone wants to know me, they should take time to look into my holes/eyes.
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